Minimum specs for entry to mid level gaming system?

S

Stevarian

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 13, 2002
Messages
499
Hello,

I didn't want to hijack the thread seeking advice on building a basic computer for the poster's neighbor. I have a similar question though. I have a friend at work who currently has a Windows 98 machine that is on its last legs, and he wants to replace it. He doesn't want to spend a lot of cash, and wants a system that can play some of the current games decently, but is not a hard core gamer, and doesn't need Direct X 10. His budget is around $400-800.

I don't necessarily need a build list, just what would be considered minimum specs for the CPU, motherboard and video card to get a decent, entry level gaming machine. I know he should have at least 512 MB RAM, and will recommend he get 1 GB, and at least an 80 or 120 gig hard drive.

Thanks in advance!

Steve
 
Head down to www.CyberpowerPC.com and get your self

a cool case
3800+ X2 (AM2) proccessor
1gb of DDR2 RAM (nothin fancy just normal)
7900gs or gt
250gb (or as much as you can spend HDD)
any accesories (+ blue lighting hehehe)

it'lll cost much more w/ a monitor

(you can interpret this as both a build list and a minimum for a midranger)

This is the essentials for a midrange Games PC. It'll cost you less than $800

An entry level pc would be best to have a 7600gs and only 512mb of RAM and less extras
 
For mid-level gaming, I'd recommend more like:

Nice case
E6300 or E6400
650i chipset mobo or i965 chipset mobo
2GB DDR2 RAM (1GB if money is tight, but you'll get better performance and load times from 2GB)
7900GS is good, but for $40 more (or so) you can pick up an X1900XT that will perform much better
200 - 250GB SATA hard drive (or more depending on budget)
good ~500W PSU

Using quality parts, you're looking at around $1000 - $1200 depending on the brands you pick. That's using the E6400, 2GB Corsair XMS2, X1900XT, etc. You can get it down lower buying the E6300, 7900GS and lower performance RAM. I'd still recommend sticking with 2GB though.
 
G66 said:
Head down to www.CyberpowerPC.com and get your self

a cool case
3800+ X2 (AM2) proccessor
1gb of DDR2 RAM (nothin fancy just normal)
7900gs or gt
250gb (or as much as you can spend HDD)
any accesories (+ blue lighting hehehe)

it'lll cost much more w/ a monitor

(you can interpret this as both a build list and a minimum for a midranger)

This is the essentials for a midrange Games PC. It'll cost you less than $800

An entry level pc would be best to have a 7600gs and only 512mb of RAM and less extras
Click to expand...
I shudder @ cyberpower
 
Thanks for the info, that is the kind of info I was looking for! To jcll2002, what is wrong with Cyberpower pc's?

Steve
 
For a budget (say ~$600) I think that c2duo are a bit out of the price range. I'd probably go s939 - not much upgrade opportunity, but great bang for buck

$154 Opteron 165
$80 s939 board able to hit 300 HTT (dfi infinity ultra or there's the asrock dual)
$80 1gig generic ram
$160 7900gs
$70 250gb drive
$40 Generic case (usually best to buy local from microcenter, pcclub etc rather than pay shipping)
$50 450w PSU from the recommended list (xclio 450w)
$30 16x dvd burner

Total is $664, plus $80 for oem windows. You should be able to overclock the chip to at least 2.7ghz with the stock cooler, or you can get the oem version of the chip plus an artic cooler 64 for about $10 more. You could also go gor a 7600GT for about $100, which will run most recent games fine at 1024 or 1280 res (17" monitor.)

On a tight budget, drop the Opty165 to an A64 3200+ for $50 from amazon, which is single core but should OC about the same.
 
Stevarian said:
Thanks for the info, that is the kind of info I was looking for! To jcll2002, what is wrong with Cyberpower pc's?

Steve
Click to expand...

They build some sub-par quality PCs. In addition, their support is horrible or non-existent.

Here's a link: http://consumer.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA0MCwsLGhjb25zdW1lcg==

Here's what I'd get for an entry level gaming machine:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 - $190.00
GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express - $108.99
G.Skill F2-6400CL5S-1GBNQ 1GB DDR2 800 RAM - $114.99
eVGA GeForce 7600GT 256MB PCI-Express - $129.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s - $57.99
NEC Black DVD Burner - $29.99
XClio 450BL ATX 450W Power Supply - $39.99
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 ATX Mid-Tower - $49.99
----
Total: $721.93 + Tax and Shipping

I do suggest however that you buy a computer case locally because Case shipping charges are a bitch. But if you can't find a computer store that sells computer cases nearby, then go with the Cooler Master I suggested earlier. If you want to save about $100, then you can buy this CPU: Pentium D 805 2.66Ghz CPU - $93.00

Still Dual-Core and good enough for entry level gaming.
 
Danny Bui said:
Here's what I'd get for an entry level gaming machine:
<snip>
Total: $721.93 + Tax and Shipping
Click to expand...
Thanks for doing the intel route of what I had. The c2d will be a bit faster, but also bumps the price up a bit, though maybe my memory price was a bit low. Either one would give a pretty good gaming experience at normal resolutions, but I think it'd be better to pay extra for a 7900gs rather than the 7600gt and take a slower CPU as trade off. The c2d route would also have a better upgrade path, though that may not be a factor. I'd rather take amd than the P4D though, while entry level dual core it's a pretty weak chip without serious overclocks and cooling.
 
All depends upon your resolution. If you have a 17" or 19" LCD, most likely you'll be wanting to use 1280x1024 as a resolution. A lot of games need some serious power for that resolution (FEAR, Oblivion, etc). That's why I went with slightly higher end parts. I would seriously avoid getting anything too entry level, unless you're only going to play CS and UT2004.
 
I wouldn't drop below the 7900GS/X1900 series cards. I just upgraded from an X1600XT to a BFG 7900GS OC and it's a huge difference. It also puts PC gaming right about where it should be in my opinion, given cost-to-performance. My machine is a little CPU/memory bound at the moment but with AA disabled I can go max quality in most games @ 1280x1024. Any less of a card and you'll be forced to turn the settings/resolution down... a better card is going to cost noticably more. I got lucky with the BFG card and picked it up for $159CDN after instant/mail-in rebates during boxing week. ;) Regarding memory tho, i'll note that BF2 @ 1280x1024 stills hurts a little w/ on 1.2GB... i've got 2GB (2x1GB) on loan for the weekend and I expect that will help.
 
Thanks for all of your suggestions. As to the budget, yes, I posted it as $400-800, as my friend said he wanted to get by as cheaply as possible, yet still be able to play games....When I showed him this thread, he reminded me that he also will need a monitor within that budget.....I have a 17" CRT that I could give him...and then later on he could get something bigger when he had some money.
 
Cyberpowersystem.co.uk is a much better site than the US version Cyberpowerpc.com

The UK company is far better (avoid the US one!)
 
G66 said:
Cyberpowersystem.co.uk is a much better site than the US version Cyberpowerpc.com

The UK company is far better (avoid the US one!)
Click to expand...

Wow... wanted to catch this thread before it fell off page 20? :p
 
Danny Bui said:
They build some sub-par quality PCs. In addition, their support is horrible or non-existent.

Here's a link: http://consumer.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA0MCwsLGhjb25zdW1lcg==

Here's what I'd get for an entry level gaming machine:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 - $190.00
GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express - $108.99
G.Skill F2-6400CL5S-1GBNQ 1GB DDR2 800 RAM - $114.99
eVGA GeForce 7600GT 256MB PCI-Express - $129.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s - $57.99
NEC Black DVD Burner - $29.99
XClio 450BL ATX 450W Power Supply - $39.99
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 ATX Mid-Tower - $49.99
----
Total: $721.93 + Tax and Shipping

I do suggest however that you buy a computer case locally because Case shipping charges are a bitch. But if you can't find a computer store that sells computer cases nearby, then go with the Cooler Master I suggested earlier. If you want to save about $100, then you can buy this CPU: Pentium D 805 2.66Ghz CPU - $93.00

Still Dual-Core and good enough for entry level gaming.
Click to expand...


you can now get basically double the ram for the same price..

its 69.99 now.
 
remember not to skimp on the GFX card though... a 7600gt won't cut it for high res games and the 7900gs or x1950pro are very appealing for the price. The new 8600 series is cheap and future proof (yeah right, like anything in computing is...) with DX10 capability.

my tactic with cheaper gaming pc's is to get a cheapy processor on a new socket (am2 or a C2D compatible mobo) so I can upgrade that later. get the best GFX card you can afford and the minimum of ram needed for desktop work. Don't buy extra ram on the PC configurators as they cost a fortune, get the lowest amount then upgrade later with a reputable company like Corsair, Crucial or Kingston.

From the UK cyberpower I got:

X2 3800+
512mb (+ 512mb extra from Crucial)
7900gs
nforce 5 mobo
160gb HDD
18x sony optical DVD_+RW
931BW 19inch Widescreen Samsung monitor

£460 (around $900)

Would have cost a lot less for a cheaper GFX card.
I made 4 of these systems and they each run all the latest DX9 content with no problems at all. FEAR at 60 FPS in a LAN is sweeeeeeet!!!
 
enginurd said:
Wow... wanted to catch this thread before it fell off page 20? :p
Click to expand...

G66 said:
wtf? its on my subscriptions list... I
Click to expand...

Ok dude, I think you need to subscribe to more threads, lol. I think this one is rather dead already. Though, I may be wrong... but judging by the dates of the posts by the OP, and you, I'd still say it was dead and that your subscription list is too short, hehe. Though I guess others in the UK could use the info you posted recently. ;)
 
dude, do NOT put together a computer for your neighbor. if he's still running windows 98, he will NOT be able to fix his own problems. go ahead and buy a cheap dell. the cheapies can't be put together for much cheaper, but you also get a warranty and some kind of support.
 
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